Thermodynamic and dielectric relaxation study of erythritol-water binary mixture using time domain reflectometry

Temperature dependent dielectric permittivity of binary mixtures of erythritol & water has been measured using the time domain reflectometry (TDR) technique in the frequency range of 10 MHz to 30 GHz. Measurements were done at different temperatures ranging from 5 °C to 25 °C for different weight fractions of erythritol (0 < WE ≤ 0.3) in water. The measured dielectric spectra for these mixtures have been fitted using the Cole-Davidson model in order to evaluate the dielectric parameters such as the static dielectric constant and relaxation time for the mixtures. The interactions between erythritol and water molecules are discussed using the Kirkwood correlation factor and thermodynamic parameters. The activation energy is found minimum at 20% of erythritol in water.